Congress

Pelosi is out. Expect heavy campaigning in CA — and cues for senior Dems in DC to follow suit.

Published

10 months ago

November 6, 2025

SAN FRANCISCO — Nancy Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House and one of the most powerful women in modern American politics, will retire from Congress next year.

The San Francisco Democrat, who announced her decision Thursday, had come under increasing pressure to step aside amid her party’s widening generational divide. Now 85, she defied political observers in 2023 when she ran for a 20th congressional term despite Democrats losing the House and her speakership the year before. But next year, she faced a tougher-than-expected group of primary challengers.

“I will not be seeking reelection to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative,” Pelosi said in a lengthy and emotional video posted on social media and addressed to San Franciscans.

One of the most formidable political tacticians of her generation, Pelosi had deflected speculation for months about her plans. Her announcement came two days after California voters overwhelmingly approved a measure to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

The question of Pelosi’s retirement timeline has for years been the subject of feverish speculation in San Francisco, a deep-blue and politics-obsessed city that has produced a stream of national Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris. But Pelosi had hinted that she would make a major announcement after Tuesday’s election.

Now, the departure of one of the nation’s most recognizable Democrats, who was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election, marks the end of an era. It also sets off a cascade of campaign maneuvering here as Democrats seize on the once-in-a-generation opportunity of an open House seat in this center of Democratic politics. And in Washington, Pelosi’s coming departure will prompt questions about the political futures of her senior-ranking congressional allies.

Pelosi already faced two serious Democratic challengers: Saikat Chakrabarti, a wealthy former tech executive and progressive organizer, and Scott Wiener, a prominent state lawmaker who has been angling to succeed Pelosi for years.

Another potential contender for the seat is San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, a progressive force inside City Hall who, much like Pelosi, is closely aligned with the city’s powerful labor movement. Pelosi has recently heaped attention on Chan, who’s been featured alongside the former speaker at several recent campaign events.

Pelosi’s departure will deprive Republicans of a chief antagonist they have used as a visceral foil since long before the Trump era — part of a decades-long effort by the GOP to cast Pelosi as a caricature of coastal elite liberalism.

Pelosi, while fading from center stage after stepping aside from her leadership post, continued to wield clout in party politics. She campaigned across the state this fall in support of Democrats’ redistricting measure and was central to the effort to resist President Donald Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and federal safety-net programs. Last year, Pelosi moved behind the scenes to help convince former President Joe Biden not to run for another term. And she’s continued to be a sounding board for Hill Democrats, including her successor, Hakeem Jeffries.

Some Pelosi allies said in recent days that they hoped she would run again, predicting she could help boost Democrats in the midterms.

“She’s back in her five-inch heels. This is not someone who gets lost in the hallways,” said Oakland Rep. Lateefah Simon, a first-term member who counts Pelosi as a mentor and described her as a force at the Capitol even after leaving leadership and recovering from an injury last year. “She has been one of the most consequential legislators in American history. That loss is going to be deeply felt.”

Pelosi has often said she meant to retire years ago but stayed on Capitol Hill to defend the Affordable Care Act — one of her crowning achievements as speaker — amid threats from Republicans. Then, she found herself embroiled in her party’s yearslong power struggle with Trump, who she, like many Democrats, cast as a threat to democracy.

Her farewell video, posted on social media, recalls highlights of Pelosi’s career, including leading efforts to rebuild in San Francisco after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, helping to create the city’s Presidio national park site and her trailblazing status as the first female speaker.

“I have truly loved serving as your voice in Congress, and I’ve always honored the song of Saint Francis, ‘Lord make me an instrument of thy peace,’ the anthem of our city,” Pelosi said. “That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know.”

Pelosi also faced personal struggles in recent years that fueled speculation about her political future. Just before the 2022 midterms, David DePape broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco mansion and attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer. He was sentenced to life in prison on a slew of state and federal charges. And last year, she underwent hip replacement surgery after suffering an injury while traveling.

Pelosi, in a 2022 documentary by her daughter, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi, reflected on the accomplishments and travails of her speakership — offering a sobering yet unapologetic take.

“Being speaker makes you a target — a target of misinformation, a target of mockery and sometimes a target of violence,” Pelosi said, before quoting from a prayer she once saw in Africa: “When one day I meet my maker … he will say to me: ‘Show me your wounds.’ … I’m proud of my wounds.”

Congress

Trump nominates Wesley Hunt as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Published

23 minutes ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) to be the next U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia on Monday, part of a spate of nominations sent to the Senate less than two months before the midterms decides the fate of the GOP’s control of the chamber.

Hunt, one of the first Black Republicans to represent Texas in the House, was one of three Republican candidates locked in a fierce battle for a Senate seat in Texas earlier this year.

Trump held off on endorsing a candidate in the initial primary but backed state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the runoff. Hunt pitched himself as a staunch Trump ally in that race and quickly endorsed Paxton — the eventual winner — once Trump signaled his favorite.

The ambassadorship was last held by Michael Ratney, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden and served in the position until January 2025.

Trump has long made relations with Saudi Arabia a priority, welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House in 2025 and striking deals with the kingdom. But the nomination comes as tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis has reignited and the war in Iran has caused disruptions in its ability to export oil.

The other 40 nominations sent Monday to the Senate include some that Trump had previously announced on social media, including Heidi Overton as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Hung Cao as the next Navy secretary.

Congress

Hakeem Jeffries: Congress must act ‘immediately’ to rein in AI

Published

48 minutes ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Monday for immediate congressional action to regulate artificial intelligence — his most urgent call to date for guardrails on the rapidly advancing technology amid warnings it could eradicate humanity if left unchecked.

“The explosive growth of artificial intelligence and the challenges that are therein presented — that’s not a hoax,” Jeffries said at his weekly news conference. “It’s very real, despite what Donald Trump has to say about that issue as well, and it requires decisive congressional action immediately, in a manner consistent with what some of the leading AI voices in the country are now saying needs to happen, as it relates to slowing things down to protect the health, the safety and the well-being of the American people.”

Jeffries’ call for regulation comes days after an ex-Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, warned that AI could “kill us all,” prompting calls from the company’s CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk for an AI development slowdown. Trump has responded by downplaying the risks and doubling down in his support for accelerating AI breakthroughs to compete with China.

Jeffries urged Speaker Mike Johnson Monday to keep Congress in session “until something is done decisively to protect the safety and the well-being of the American people, in the face of growing concerns being raised by experts within the artificial intelligence industry itself.”

Johnson canceled the last two weeks of session before the midterms, meaning that the House is slated to leave Capitol Hill on Thursday and not return until Nov. 9. The speaker has given no indication he will revisit this plan and has remained noncommittal on whether the chamber will consider AI safety legislation ahead of the elections, if at all.

Jeffries also said the Democrat-only AI commission he convened this Congress could begin rolling out its policy recommendations soon, noting he plans to meet with the group’s three co-chairs this week. And he blamed Johnson for declining to reconstitute a bipartisan AI task force that would have allowed members of both parties to work together on the issue.

“We want to ensure that American entrepreneurs and companies can continue to lead in this space and not be overcome by the Chinese Communist Party,” Jeffries said of what the Democratic-led commission has been working on. “But on the other hand, we’ve got to ensure that the American people actually experience the benefits of artificial intelligence without being subjected to the very real, and very grave and very dangerous downsides.”

But while Jeffries is positioning Democrats as leaders on AI policy — now and in the next Congress — he declined to endorse a proposal from some of his colleagues to create a select AI committee if the party wins the majority in November.

“We’re focused on the substance, not the process,” he said, adding that any select committee discussions would take place after election day.

Jeffries did endorse the Ratepayer Protection Act — a bipartisan bill intended to shield Americans from energy costs associated with the data center boom — which is slated for a vote Tuesday.

“It’s a step forward,” he said. “More clearly needs to be done.”

Congress

Thune says ‘light touch’ needed on AI regulation

Published

1 hour ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he sees a role for Congress in regulating artificial intelligence — albeit with a “light touch.”

Thune’s comments, made to reporters in the Capitol as President Donald Trump publicly railed against regulating frontier AI models, are the first he’s made since industry insiders sounded alarm bells about the technology’s potentially catastrophic impacts on humanity.

“It needs to strike a balance, light touch. You don’t want to stifle innovation, but I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated, and there’s a capability in place to do that,” Thune said.

He added that he believed Congress could put “guardrails around those types of more consequential threats without in any way harming our ability to stay ahead in the AI race.”

Thune introduced an AI safety bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in 2023 and is negotiating a revised version that he said Monday “reflects the approach” he is advocating. Thune said he spoke with Klobuchar over the weekend about the revised bill, which is also being negotiated with Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and expressed hopes it would be finalized “hopefully soon” and that they can “get a path forward for it.”

Cruz previously told Blue Light News that he could hold a committee vote on AI legislation before the chamber adjourns ahead of the midterm elections — perhaps as soon as the end of next week.